The present disclosure relates to beverage servers for retaining beverages at a desired heated temperature, to beverage servers for preventing the dispensing of beverage which is not fresh, to beverage servers for preventing overflow of brewed beverage, to beverage servers for preventing the combining of old beverage with new, to brewers for automatically brewing beverage when a liquid level in a server falls below a pre-determined level, and to brewing systems for preventing the dispensing of beverage from a brewer to a server when the server is not in position.
Prior art beverage servers have attempted to maintain the temperature of a brewed beverage retained therein in a variety of ways. One form of beverage server utilizes a heat resistant and heat conductive material for a beverage reservoir and places an exposed flame using a product such as gelled fuel thereunder to provide heat. One problem with this type of beverage server is that an exposed flame is presented to the customers and that the flame does not necessarily maintain a consistent or desired beverage temperature.
Another form of beverage dispenser which provides heat to a server is a warmer plate type device. The server is constructed of a material which will conduct heat from a warmer plate positioned therebelow. Heat is produced by the warmer plate, generally at a consistent power level. Typically, a glass, metal or ceramic reservoir is required in order to conduct heat to the beverage retained therein. This type of server provides heat to the beverage retained therein but also places an active heating element in a position which may be accessible to a user. Such an active heating element exposed to customers may be less than optimal.
Another way in which the prior art has attempted to maintain a brewed beverage in a heated condition and to present the beverage in a server for use by a consumer is the use of glass-insulated reservoirs and air pots. The glass insulated reservoirs provide temperature retention and may be heated by a warming device as discussed above. However, such glass reservoirs are subject to damage upon impact. As such, it would be preferable to provide a non-breakable reservoir structure for such beverage servers especially because they are presented to customers for use and such consumers may be less than careful in using such servers.
The air pots mentioned above help to slow the loss of heat from beverage servers but generally are not used with an active heat maintaining system. Air pots typically use a glass reservoir and are subject to the problems discussed hereinabove with regard to glass reservoirs. Further, the air pots use a pressurization system in order to drive coffee through a dispensing tube in the reservoir. As such, atmospheres are actively and intentionally introduced into the air pot reservoir. Generally, it is desirable to minimize the contact of atmosphere with coffee retained in a reservoir in order to improve and extend the flavor qualities of the coffee. Contact and exposure to air tend to reduce the flavor characteristics and degrade the coffee. As such, air pots actively introducing such air may tend to accelerate the flavor degradation.
As an additional matter, the prior art servers tend to quickly reduce the temperature of coffee when coffee is initially dispensed into a cool or unheated reservoir. As might be expected, heat from the coffee is conducted to the surrounding walls of the reservoir which thereby reduces the temperature of the beverage and reduces the time for retaining the beverage. While some reservoirs provide instructions to the food preparation employee to preheat a reservoir with heated water, the food preparation employees may forget or fail to preheat the reservoirs thereby creating the problems associated with cold reservoirs.
As might be expected with other foods, coffee as well as other brewed beverages have a xe2x80x9clifexe2x80x9d during which the flavor characteristics are optimal. Freshly brewed coffee, for example, sitting in an open pot will have a xe2x80x9clifexe2x80x9d of approximately 20-30 minutes. The life is extended by reducing the evaporative loss of the coffee, minimizing the atmospheric contact with the coffee, regulating the temperature conducted to the coffee to maintain the coffee at a desired serving temperature, preventing overcooking of the coffee, and maintaining the temperature at a desired temperature range. However, prior art devices tend to expose the coffee to the atmosphere, fail to regulate the temperature of the heat provided to maintain the coffee in a heated condition, and tend to xe2x80x9ccookxe2x80x9d the coffee such as by leaving the coffee on an unregulated warmer.
Additionally, some prior art beverage servers readily allow a consumer to dispense beverage from the server even though the beverage may have been sitting in the server a long time (i.e. even though the beverage is old).
Further, some prior art beverage servers do not prevent dispensing a brewed beverage from a brewer to a server even though the server may already be full. This may cause the server to overflow. Moreover, some prior art servers do not prevent dispensing a brewed beverage from a brewer to a server even though there is some old beverage contained in the server. Hence, freshly brewed beverage is mixed with old beverage in the server.
Additionally, some prior art beverage servers do not provide that brewing is automatically initiated once the beverage retained in a server has diminished below a pre-determined level.
Still further, some prior art beverage serving systems provide that beverage can be dispensed from a brewer even though an associated server is not in position under the brewer. For the foregoing reasons, as well as other reasons which may not have been discussed hereinabove, there is a need for an improved beverage server which may be presented to customers for self-dispensing.
An object of an embodiment of the present invention is to provide a beverage server which is configured to prevent dispensing beverage which has become stale.
Another object of an embodiment of the present invention is to provide a brewer which is configured to dispense beverage to a server only if the beverage retained in the server has decreased to a pre-determined level.
Still another object of an embodiment of the present invention is to provide a brewer which is configured to automatically initiate a brewing cycle once the beverage retained in a server has diminished below a pre-determined level.
Still yet another object of an embodiment of the present invention is to provide a brewer which is configured to detect whether a server is in position relative to the brewer.
Briefly, and in accordance with at least one of the foregoing objects, an embodiment of the present invention provides a beverage server in combination with a beverage brewer. Contacts are provided between the brewer and server, and the server is conductively coupleable to and removable from the brewer. The server is configured to detect a level of beverage retained in the server and communicate this information to the brewer. The brewer is configured to automatically initiate a brewing cycle in response to pre-determined conditions, such as upon beverage in the server decreasing below a pre-determined level. The brewer is configured to detect whether the server is in position relative to the brewer and is configured to dispense beverage only if the server is detected. Preferably, the server is configured to prevent dispensing of beverage if a pre-determined time period has expired, in order to avoid dispensing beverage with an expired, pre-determined freshness period.